Fence



J. N. HUDSON.

FENCE.

No. 328,120. Patented Oct. 13, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH NEWTON HUDSON, OF BOONESBOROUGH, MISSOURI.

FENCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 328,120, dated October13, 1885.

Application filed May 23, 1885. Serial No. 166,528.

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH NEWTON HUD- sON, a citizen of the UnitedStates', residing at Boonesborough, in the county of Howard and State ofMissouri, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in ZigzagFences; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to zigzag felices; and it consists, chieiiy, ofimprovements in the means whereby the panels of such fences areconveniently and firmly secured together, and whereby the connectionscan be tightened after they have become loose by reason of the naturalshrinkage of the fence or from any other cause. I dispense with theposts or poles usually employed for joining the panels of fences of thisclass, and use instead a wire, which I tighten by means of a lever in amanner to be hereinafter described. This greatly reduces the cost ofsuch fences and makes it practicable to construct fences with shorterpanels, thereby reducing the amount of waste land in the corners of thefences and effectinga saving in the amount of fence material. Whereasthe ordinary lengths of fence-panels are about five feet, I propose tomake my panels about two feet and a half in length.

In order to enable others to understand clearly the nature of myinvention, I will now describe it with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which- Figure 1 is an elevation of my improved fence inposition. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same in process of construction,the bindinglevers not yet having been drawn into place; and Fig. 3 is aview of the binding-wire.

The same letters refer to the same parts in all the drawings.

A A are the rails of an ordinary zigzag fence. One end of the lowestrail in each panel rests on the ground, and the other rests on the endof thelowest rail in the next panel. The panels are built up in such amanner that every rail except the top one lies at each end both on andunder a rail of the adjoining panel, the panels being joined together atany convenient angle. A loop of wire,as W, is wound around the two upperrails of each panel in the man- (No model.)

ner shown, and the wire is then led down on the outside of the panelunder the lowest rail of the adjoining panel, and up on the outsidenearly to the top of the fence,where it is joined to the lever B. It isevident that by pulling down the outer end of the lever B the wire Wwill be drawn tight around the ends of the rails AA, securing themfirmlyin place. The wire W should be made short enough to requireconsiderable exertion to bring the lever B down into place.

It is intended that the levers B B shall be operated successively, andthat the outer end of each shall be held under the end of the uppermostrail in the preceding panel, or under the inner end of the lever lastoperated. The first lever in the series will be securely fixed in placeby any suitable means. The remaining levers are held in place by thehooks S S on the wires W W, in connection with the eyes T T on the endsof the levers. The hooksS S are made adjustable on the wires W W, sothat in case it becomes necessary, on account of the shrinkage of t-hefence, or for any other reason, to put the end of the levers B B underthose of the second or third rails in the several panels, or in any ofthem, there may still be means of holding them in position.

It will be seen that my means for joining the successive panels are verysimple and inexpensive. It is not necessary that the levers B B shouldbe of heavy material, as any ordinary pole will serve the purposeequally well. There will be no need of special supports for the fence,as the panels are so firmly joined as to make the whole fence a firmstructure,having a base as wide as the angular distance between theextreme end of a joiut on one side and the extreme end of the nextsucceeding joint on the other side. For the same reason the fence willstand well on sidling ground, and the usual worm or crook of the fencecan be shortened.

Owing to the simplicity of my lock and the ease with which it ismanipulated, it will be easy, according to need, to tighten any jointsthat may have become loose or to loosen the connections entirely,and soleave the fence in a condition to be taken apart and carried off to beset up in another place.

I am aware that fences have been constructed or proposed forconstruction in which the IOO top rail of each panel, when lifted into(place, serves to tighten the Wire around the ends of adjoining panels;butin such constructions no provision has been made for counteractingthe effect of shrinkage, or, if any, the means employed have beensubstantially diff'erent from mine. The binding or tightening effect inmy fence is produced by depressing the tightening-lever, and not bylifting a rail into position.

Having now described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, 1s-

1. The oombination,with the panels of a zigzag fence, of a Wire adaptedto pass around the interlacing ends of the said panels, a lever fortightening the Wire around the ends of the panels,oneend of the saidwire being attached to the said lever, and the latter being long enoughto pass under the end of any one ofthe rails of the next precedingpanel, and a hook adjustable on the Wire of the adjoining panel forholding thelever'in position under the end of any rail, substantially asand for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination of the rails A A, the Wire V, and the lever B, havingeye T, With the Wire at the other end of the panel, and the adjustablehook S, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

JOSEPH NEWTON HUDSON.

WV it n esses J AMES FENELON MOORE, RAW. TAN. CALLOWAY.

